Donald Trump! – Promises Kept?

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By Larry Daniels

“Promises Kept”. You will see this slogan from the Trump campaign from now until the election. Putting out such a slogan means you better be prepared to back it up. Truth gives it power. Lies make it weak. It is just that simple. All we need to do to judge it’s veracity is look at the President’s record.

PolitiFact, originating in 2007, is an election-year project of the Tampa Bay Times. It is a group of editors and journalists that began focusing on specific statements made by politicians and rating them for accuracy. PolitiFact is a verified signatory of the International Fact Checking Network’s code of principles since 2017. The overall vision is a nonpartisan one, and their financial information is publicly available.

Their scorecard on 100 of President Trump’s 2016 campaign promises looks like this as of July 15th, 2020. Promises Kept: 24%; Compromises: 20%; Promises Broken: 49%; and stalled promises: 5%.

Let’s look at some of the campaign promises that President Trump failed to deliver on:

Grow the economy by 4% a year.

The percentage change from the previous year in inflation adjusted gross domestic product never reached 4% during the Trump Presidency. President Obama, however, reached 5% two times in two different quarters of his Presidency. “We’re bringing it (the GDP) from 1% up to 4%. And I actually think we can go higher than 4%. I think you can go to 5% or 6%.”, the current President bragged. In the first quarter of 2020, the GDP went negative and blew up this narrative for Trump.
Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.

This next part sounds like an excerpt from Jo, one of our Ringside Report writers, during her “Donny” diaries. “I will build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”, said the President.

News Flash: Mexico is not paying for the wall, US taxpayers are. Less than 200 miles of the wall are completed across the 2,000-mile span. 15 billion US tax dollars are going to be used for a border wall system spanning over 700 miles (including the existing structures) that will not be completed at the end of 2020. Did everyone see the clip of a partial wall that was built that fell down during a strong wind? I think there are a lot of people who could build a wall better than you, Mr. President. Nice try.

Eliminate the federal debt in 8 years.

The President said, “We’ve got to get rid of the 19 trillion dollars in debt. Well, I would say over a period of 8 years. And I’ll tell you why.” The national debt has increased nearly $8 trillion during the Trump presidency. The 2017 Republican tax cut was aimed at stimulating the economy. Did we see skyrocketing business and investment? It did for two quarters, and now it looks like downward ski hill in the Alps. Was the economy supercharged? The growth rate followed the GDP predictably down the hill. Remember when Republicans said the tax cut will pay for itself?

I’ve got eight trillion reasons why that is completely incorrect.

The federal debt is still growing now. How about those repatriated earnings from corporations who stash cash overseas? President Trump promised this would produce a flood of repatriated earnings amounting to four to five trillion dollars, nearly twice the amount that corporations were actually storing overseas. Another ski hill here. The US has received 840 billion dollars to date with diminished returns. Have your wages skyrocketed? Yeah, mine neither.

Enact 5-year ban on White House and Congressional officials from lobbying.

The President said, “First, I’m going to reinstitute a five-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for five years after they leave the government. I’m going to ask Congress to pass this ban into law so that it cannot be lifted by executive order, right. Second, I’m going to ask Congress to institute its own five-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staffs.” An October 2019 investigation by ProPublica found that 281 lobbyists have worked in the Trump administration, which works out to one lobbyist for every 14 political appointees. In July, Politico reported that at least 82 former Trump administration officials have registered as lobbyists. Former deputy chief of staff, Rick Dearborn and White House advisor, Pam Bondi are part of this illustrious group. Swampiest swamp there ever was.
Release his tax returns after an audit is completed.

The court battle continues in New York over this one, nearly four years later.

A promise Trump kept? Make no cuts to social security.

Trump said, “I’m not going to cut social security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” Trump released a proposed budget for 2021, as he had in previous years, that advocated cutting disability programs administered by the Social Security Administration: Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. Congress didn’t bite, so Trump gets a promise kept here. Not because of lack of trying to break it.

If half of your promises were broken, should you put “Promises Kept” on a sign and make it a slogan? It just perpetuates the fact that this President cannot tell the truth. America, are you better off today than you were four years ago? Do you see the need for reliable leadership? We should be a proud Nation standing together like family. Vote for a change to this dumpster fire meth lab we are experiencing now. Go Blue! Bless America with your voices and your votes!

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